Thursday, June 25, 2015

Florida’s most
prolific serial killerby
Robert A. WatersEdgar J. Watson got his violent nature from
his father.Nicknamed “Ring-Eye” Lige
because of a circular scar around one eye that he got in a knife-fight, Lige
would fight anybody at the drop of a hat.Bloody Ed’s mother fled her loutish husband, taking her son from South Carolina
to Lake City, Florida.Soon
Ed grew restless and moved to Arkansas.There he hooked up with the outlaw, Belle Starr. They had a falling-out, however, and Starr
ended up on the wrong end of a bullet.Watson was suspected of being her killer, but by then, he’d high-tailed
it back to Florida where he began racking up an impressive string of murders.In
the early 1900’s, he bought Chatham Bend Key, one of the Ten Thousand Islands in
the Everglades.According to Florida’s Past by James M. Burnett, “It
was not long before [Watkins] had his fertile little island lush with cane
crops, produce, and the valuable buttonwood, cords of which he shipped to Key
West.His cane syrup was a popular
product and he shipped tons of it in his 70-foot schooner to Fort Myers and to
dealers such as Bryan and Snow in Tampa.”Despite
his financial success, Bloody Ed couldn’t keep from killing people.In Arcadia, he knifed Quinn Bass to death,
but since no one could positively identify him, he escaped a charge of murder.While visiting relatives in Lake City, he had
a dispute with Sam Toland, and ended up shooting him.Bloody Ed was somehow acquitted of Toland’s
murder, but was given an ultimatum by the local sheriff: head back to the Ten
Thousand Islands and never come back to Lake City.Watson
did just that.But
he could never control his temper.While
attending an auction in Key West, Watson got into an argument with local
resident Adolphus Santini.The
hot-headed Bloody Ed attacked Santini, slitting his throat.He likely would have killed his hapless victim,
but bystanders pulled Watson off.Santini
survived, but Bloody Ed was forced to pay him $900 (a fortune at the time) to
drop the charges of attempted murder.Not
long after, Watson found two men “squatting” on one of his islands.They refused to move, and quickly ended up
dead.While there was little evidence, local
residents figured Watson was the killer.But since there were no lawmen to investigate (the nearest sheriff lived
90 miles away), Bloody Ed walked yet again.But
those crimes were just incidental to Bloody Ed’s real murderous spree that had been going on for years.In Florida’s
Past, Burnett writes: “…A young black boy fled [Chatham Bend Key] in
terror, racing over river, swamp, and sawgrass, to reach a group of farmers,
clamdiggers, and herdsmen near Chokoloskee.The frightened boy bore witness to a gruesome murder by Watson…”The boy guided the men to the grave of a
woman named Hannah Smith.At more than
six feet tall and three hundred pounds, she was harder to bury than most of
Watson’s victims, and he inadvertently left a leg sticking out of the ground.This
was the final straw for the citizens of the Ten Thousand Islands.They disinterred the remains and soon headed
for Ted Smallwood’s Store in Chololoskee, where Watson bought supplies.The crowd had heard that Watson was on his
way.Once
he arrived, a shotgun in his boat, the mob was waiting.Witnesses stated that, when Watson advanced
toward the men with his gun pointed at them, they opened up.Thirty-three bullets later, Chololoskee’s bad
man lay dead.It turned out that Watson
had tried to fire his weapon, but the powder in his shotgun shell had been wet and
wouldn’t detonate.(Smallwood’s wife had
sold him the shells, and rumors circulated that she had intentionally tampered
with them.)But
the story didn’t end there.Within
hours, a hurricane hit the islands, tearing up the landscape.When searchers returned to Chatham Bend Key, Burnett
writes that they unearthed “about 50 skeletons” on properties owned by Watson.Investigators
soon learned that he would travel to Tampa or Tarpon Springs and hire workers
to help load his produce.He made sure
these men had few, if any, relatives who would come looking for them.When these down-and-outers became insistent that
he pay them, he would dispatch them and bury their bodies on one of his
islands.In other cases, it is thought
that he dumped many in the Gulf of Mexico.The
actual number of souls murdered by the diabolical madman will never be known.The
county sheriff finally arrived and held an inquest into Watson’s death.No charges were ever filed against those who
gunned down the killer.Edgar
Watson’s remains were interred at Rabbit Key, and the secrets of Florida’s most
prolific serial killer were buried with him.

Friday, June 19, 2015

by
Robert A. WatersI
recently published a blog entitled, Atrocities on Chichi Jima.The story describes
a nightmarish tale of torture, murder, and cannibalism. During
the waning days of World War II, American flyers Grady York and James “Jimmie”
Dye were captured by the Japanese after bailing out of their disabled
bomber.On the island of Chichi Jima,
thirteen Japanese officers cannibalized the
flesh and livers of the downed airmen.Other captured airmen also suffered similar barbaric treatment.Jennifer
Gilmer, whose father, Frederic T. Suss [pictured], prosecuted the Japanese officers,
alerted me to the fact that this was his very first trial out of law
school.Jennifer sent me transcripts of
his closing argument.Suss’s words are
so powerful that the following excerpts will be quoted verbatim.Closing Argument
for the Prosecution Delivered by Frederic T. Suss, Lieutenant USNR“Gentlemen,
we are assembled here in the name of justice.We are here to proclaim that justice is not the prerogative of one
nation or of one people but is the sacred and inviolable right of every
individual, however obscure or exalted or in whatever remote corner of the
world in which he may be found.Upon
this principle we have builded a nation.Although that nation has grown to be a formidable power, her people have
never lost sight of the fact that she owes her very existence to the defiance
of the tyranny of power.“We
are not a nation of moralists but we have observed that government may learn
from religion.Christianity has taught
us of the dignity of men and the sacredness of the individual.This spirit is found in our laws and
proclaimed in our courts.This is what
we demand for our people and this is what America extends to others.“We
do not seek revenge, for revenge is not justice.We do not repeat the mistakes of the fallen
enemy.We do not punish the innocent…“In
accordance with these traditions the accused have been given a fair and just
trial, the like of which has never been seen in their native land.They have been allowed six defense counsels
of their own choosing.Our officers have
been sent on costly journeys to seek out evidence for their defense.Witnesses have been brought here at the
expense of the government to testify in their behalf.We have extended to them the protection of
our laws and indeed we have gone beyond the limits of the law to expand for
them the rights of cross-examination.“And
to whom have we extended such fair and impartial treatment?To the people who have torn and mutilated the
living bodies of our defenseless brothers in the most primitive and barbaric
fashion.What more terrible indictment can
there be than to accord these inhuman savages a fair and a just trial?There is a more terrible indictment.It is the procession of witnesses who have
come before this court.The officers and
men who have served with and under the accused.Their voices surpass the language barrier and still ring clearly and
accusingly in this courtroom.Voices
long hushed by cruel power and now crying out for justice.How shall a man face the indictment of those
with whom he has faced death together?”Later
in the argument, Suss addresses the cannibalization of the American airmen.“Defense
counsel has contended that this commission cannot decide what is an honorable
burial.That is precisely what this
commission is designed to decide.What
man of genius or what great mathematical mind is needed to decide that it is a
dishonor and a shameless travesty on a dead body to remove 16 pounds of its
flesh for cannibalism.“What
honest surgeon can ever again without remorse of conscience apply his scalpel
to a human body, living or dead when he is haunted by the spectacle of having
publicly removed the liver of a dead man to turn it over to cannibals?Does defense counsel seriously contend that
this is honorable burial?We think
not.Which of us would consider his son
honorably buried if his body was savagely bayonetted before interment?The question of honorable burial, gentlemen,
is no great philosophical problem…“These
atrocities were not committed in the heat of battle by irresponsible
subordinates but they were deliberately planned by these officers here
charged.”After
his opening arguments, Suss delivers a damning indictment of each
defendant.In the end, thirteen Japanese
officers were convicted and hung for their crimes against humanity.The
obituary of Frederic Suss is available here:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/29/AR2007012901907.html

Monday, June 15, 2015

Should NY reconsider
the death penalty?by
Robert A. WatersIn
2004, the New York Court of Appeals effectively abolished the state’s death
penalty.Capital punishment had long
been a mere formality since the last execution in the Empire State occurred in 1963.Now we learn that two brutal killers have
escaped from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora and are on the run.Richard
Matt, 48, and David Sweat, 34, allegedly sawed through the back of their cells
and climbed through a labyrinth of tunnels to freedom.They left a calling card, a smiley face with
a note that read: “Have a nice day.”The
lockup, known as “Little Siberia” due to its remote location near the Canadian
border, is a maximum security prison.So
Matt and Sweat should have been no threat to anyone except other inmates. Their escape, perhaps aided by a Trojan Horse inside the prison, surprised many.Back
in 2002, Sweat’s crime stunned New Yorkers.At
about 3:35 a.m., on July 4, Broome County Sheriff’s Deputy Kevin Tarsia spotted
a suspicious automobile near Grange Hall Park in the Town of Kirkwood, New York.Three career criminals, including Sweat, had
just burglarized a nearby gun store, walking out with dozens of weapons.As Tarsia got out of his cruiser, Sweat ambushed
him.Deputy Tarsia, hit by a barrage of
gunfire, fell to the ground. One of Sweat’s accomplices, Jeffrey A. Nabinger,
Jr., then pumped two rounds into his head.Finally,
the killers jumped into their car and drove over Tarsia.In all, the deputy was struck with fifteen
rounds and run over.Investigators
quickly zeroed in on known trouble-maker Sweat.Several years earlier, he’d been sentenced to two-to-four years in
prison for burglary—he served only 19 months before being released.He rarely worked, living by theft and dealing drugs.He had a few
girlfriends, and a child, but no stable home-life.Investigators
arrested Sweat, Nabinger, and the third accomplice. All three quickly confessed and were sentenced to
life in prison.Richard
Matt has spent most of his adult life in prison, including ten years in a Mexican
jail for murder.NBC News described the heinous crime that got him locked up in Little Siberia: “The victim was a food
broker named William Rickerson who had hired and then fired Matt. On Dec. 4, 1997, according to the trial
testimony of an accomplice, Matt beat Rickerson with a knife sharpener, bound
him with duct tape, tossed him in the trunk of a car, and then drove around for
27 hours looking for a place to kill and bury him. At one stop on the drive, Matt opened the
trunk, broke four of Rickerson’s fingers, hit him in the chest with a steering
wheel locking device, then shut the trunk and kept driving. The accomplice testified that Matt had him
turn down a cul-de-sac, stop the car and open the trunk again. He said Matt told him: ‘You know, I’ve had
enough of this.’He said Matt reached in
and twisted Rickerson’s head. ‘I heard a pop,’ the accomplice testified, and
the businessman ‘just dropped back in the trunk.’ Matt cut off the arms and legs with a hacksaw,
authorities said. A fisherman discovered
the torso in the Niagara River.”Eight
days after Matt and Sweat escaped, New York State Police arrested Joyce Mitchell, an industrial training
supervisor.Accused of being an
accomplice and providing tools to the inmates, Judge Mark Rogers set her bail at $110,000.As
of this writing, lawmen across America and Canada are desperately searching
for the escapees.Broome County Sheriff
David Harder said,“I think the fear
here is who are they going to kill next.”Phillip
Tarsia, Kevin’s father, told reporters: “They said they couldn’t give them the
death penalty. That’s what they told us
so they gave [Sweat and Matt] life without parole. We had to go along with it. They’re the ones who made the decision. We followed them but we weren’t happy with it.”

Monday, June 8, 2015

by
Robert A. WatersAfter
learning that Victoria Seigel, the daughter of jet-setters David and Jackie
Seigel, died of a suspected drug overdose, I decided to check out other
celebrities whose lives were cut short by dope.There are hundreds, if not thousands, so I listed a few that interested me.Len Bias had fame and
fortune in his headlights.The
22-year-old University of Maryland star forward had just been selected as the second pick in the 1986 National Basketball Association draft.Two days later, he met with the Boston Celtics and later discussed a 1.6 million
dollar deal with Reebok.But after
partying all night with friends, Bias suddenly had a seizure and
collapsed.He died before EMTs could get
him to the hospital.The medical
examiner reported that his death was due to heart arrhythmia caused by cocaine
use. It was reported that this may have been the
first time Bias used cocaine.At
the age of 33, John Belushi overdosed
on a “speedball,” (a mixture of cocaine and heroin).Belushi is best-known for his skits on
Saturday Night Live and as one of the Blues Brothers.In fact, SNL terminated him several times
because of his constant drug use.On
March 5, 1982, Catherine Evelyn Smith gave him the shot that ended his
life.She was convicted of manslaughter
and served fifteen months in prison. Although his remains have since been moved to
an anonymous grave, a stone at the site of his first burial reads: “I may be
gone but Rock and Roll lives on.”Listen
to the Blues Brothers version of the iconic song, “Sweet Home Chicago.”Ken Caminiti also OD’ed on a
speedball.A third baseman, Caminiti had
his most productive years with the San Diego Padres, winning the 1996 Most
Valuable Player Award. He later admitted
that he took steroids during his best years. Throughout his life, Caminiti struggled with
substance abuse.On October 10, 2004, he
collapsed and died in a friend’s New York apartment.The cause of death was listed as “acute intoxication
due to the combined effects of cocaine and opiates.”Contributing factors were coronary artery
disease and hypertrophy, an enlarged heart.At age 41, Caminiti was dead, his body worn out by constant drug use.Whitney Houston sold nearly 200
million records in her lifetime.She
also starred in several successful films and became one of the wealthiest women
on the planet.But on February 11, 2012,
at age 48, Houston was found dead in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly
Hills.By that time, her life had
spiraled out of control.With husband
Bobby Brown, who allegedly abused her, domestic bliss was not to be had.By 2012, drug abuse had tarnished Houston’s
public image, causing many no-shows and sub-par performances.After her death, the medical examiner
pronounced that Houston had died of drowning brought about by the “effects of
atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use.”In addition to cocaine, many other drugs were found in her system.The last song Houston sang in public was,
“Jesus Loves Me.”Janis Joplin.So, where do you start with Joplin?We know where it ended—in a Los Angeles hotel
room when, after shooting up with heroin, she puked her guts out and then keeled
over dead.Turns out her dealer had
mixed the dope wrong, making it too strong.Joplin and several of his other lesser-known customers died that
night.But that can happen when you turn
to dope.Pearl, as she was sometimes
called, epitomized the hippie culture of rebellion, which usually meant drug
use.On October 4, 1970, at the Landmark
Hotel, Joplin died as she lived—hard and loose and fast—becoming a death-long
member of the infamous 27 Club.After
his death from “acute multiple drug intoxication,” the medical examiner
reported that actor River Phoenix, 23,had cocaine, morphine, and several
other drugs in his system.He rarely
used illegal drugs, his family said, and released the following statement: “His
friends, co-workers and the rest of our family know that River was not a
regular drug user. He lived at home in
Florida with us and was almost never a part of the ‘club scene’ in Los Angeles.
He had just arrived in L.A. from the
pristine beauty and quietness of Utah where he was filming for six weeks. We feel that the excitement and energy of the
Halloween nightclub and party scene were way beyond his usual experience and
control. How many other beautiful young souls, who remain anonymous to us, have
died by using drugs recreationally? [My italics.]It is my prayer that River’s leaving in this
way will focus the attention of the world on how painfully the spirits of his
generation are being worn down.”His
ashes were scattered near his home in Micanopy, Florida.